


I'll be here

by nori_wings



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: F/M, Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, did I mention drama already?, fluff and angst and drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2018-10-22 09:10:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10693926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nori_wings/pseuds/nori_wings
Summary: Fate played a dirty trick on them and  they must separate now that their resonance has disappeared. No matter how much Maka loves Soul or how much he misses her, they have different missions to fulfill and will do it for the good of the other, so that when they meet again know that they have fulfilled their promise





	1. Promise

**Author's Note:**

> for SoMa Week 2017 Day 6 "Promise"
> 
> This fanfic is very special to me, it was the second I wrote after I joined to SE fandom and when I saw the sixth day was a about promises I thought it fits PRETTY well with the prompt, haha
> 
> I want to thank to leslietendo for helping me with the translation and Aer for betaing it and being patient with my grammar mistakes 
> 
> Hope you like!!

 “I love you.”

Soul raised his eyes off the magazine that he had in his hands and he looked at Maka in bewilderment, who was standing in front of him.

“What?” he asked uncertainly.

“I've been in love with you…” she repeated bravely “for a long time.”

They fell silent. She didn't seem affected; in fact she was incredibly calm, something weird considering she was confessing her feelings. However, Soul got paralyzed.

He was surprised and not at the same time. He had realized the feelings of his partner for a long time, but it was an issue that neither of them had ever mentioned and that they would probably have to discuss at some point.

But he didn't expect it to be that sudden, out of nowhere.

“Maka, I…” he looked at her sadly “I don’t feel the same for you.”

She gave him a warm smile. “I know.”

Wasn’t this the moment when girls start to cry and run away? Why was she smiling at him if he was rejecting her?

“I knew you’d say that, I was prepared to listen it,” Maka started to say as she sat at his side. “It was just that I had to tell you, I could not leave this pending for much more.”

“I’m really sorry,” said Soul looking at the ground without knowing what to do.

“You don’t have to apologize, you've done nothing wrong.”

“Make my partner... no, my best friend feel sad is not exactly something cool.” He could feel how Maka's soul wave had shrunk in sorrow. She just sighed.

“I'm serious, Soul. I had accepted that you would never see me that way and I can live with that… if you see me sad it’s for another reason.”

“You are acting weird, what’s going on?”

Maka stood in silence and he felt her shiver. That put him on alert and he got scared. He had a bad feeling.

“Maka, just tell me!”

“We can’t be partners anymore.”

Soul was paralyzed by that horrible surprise. It had to be a joke; Maka would never leave him like this.

"What are you talking about? It’s because I don’t return your feelings?”

“No! if it was because of that, we would have separated a long time ago.”

“Then why?”

“It’s because of our resonance, Soul.” Her voice sounded so fragile and that hurt him too. “You know that it doesn’t exist anymore, it’s gone and will never come back.”

Soul felt horrible at the great truth his friend was saying. They had been a great team since they were eleven, had mastered multiple techniques of great difficulty and were proud of that. But for some time and without knowing why they couldn’t have a stable resonance.  Maka could hardly take him without burning her hands and everything ended in catastrophe when they tried to make the witch hunter.

That's why they hadn’t collected souls in several months and no matter how hard they worked and trained nothing seemed to improve the situation.

“Don't say that, we are just in a slump, you'll see that we will beat this and we will kick kishin's asses again.”

Maka shook her head. “We can't fool ourselves any longer. Lord Death has been patient with us during these months but we’ve had enough.”

“Fuck Lord Death!”

“Soul! Don’t you understand?”

“No, I don’t get it because I’m sure we can get over this.”

“Soul, our duty as students of DWMA is to create a Death Scythe,” said Maka, looking him in the eyes. “How can we do that if we can't fight?? We can't just keep being partners just on a mere whim”

“But Maka…” His voice started trembling.

“And you have an incredible potential to become a Death Scythe. I can’t accept you being stuck because of me.”

“Stop saying nonsense. You are the best scythe meister that DWMA has, no one is more capable than you to turn me into one.”

“Maybe I was, but not anymore…. You have to look for another meister, Soul. You have tons of requests, I’m sure you are going to find someone.”

“No…”

“Please… try to understand.”

“What about you? You’re gonna to tidy up DWMA library or what? I will not leave you alone.”

Her look turned even sadder. “That is not gonna happen but I have to talk with you about that too.”

“Now what?” he asked, afraid.

“You know the situation that Lord Death has in Europe, don’t you?”

Soul nodded, without understanding why that situation had anything to do with them.

“The kishin’s population is uncontrolled there and with that, more weapons and meisters without a guide have been appearing,” she explained. “Not everybody can come over and study here and we can’t keep it like that so Lord Death decided to create a DWMA headquarter in Europe.”

He instantly guessed what she was going to say next and talked before she confirmed his fears.

“You… are leaving?”

“…Yes”

“I get it, you need to stay away from me.” His voice sounded empty.

That made her angry “Of course not, I will kill you for thinking that! Do you really think I would like to leave you and the others?”

“Then… it’s something that you didn’t choose by yourself?”

“No, they transferred me because they need me for a special mission.”

She stayed quiet for a moment knowing that she was going to hurt her partner if she told him about _that_.

“There are less and less scythes in the world, but one appeared in France…” She took a deep breath. “And they assigned him as my weapon.”

Silence, again.

“A guy?” Soul asked.

“Yes, and for all I know he’s older than us, but his weapon blood awoke recently and he needs an experienced meister to help him to control and learn his powers,” Maka answered. “They chose me saying the same as you, that I’m one of the best scythe meisters from DWMA.”

“They should send Stein; he could train him,” said Soul, bitter.

“I won’t train him; I’m just gonna be his partner. My mother will train us; she agreed to be a teacher at the headquarters in Europe.”

Training with Kami Albarn, that was something that any meister on the DWMA would kill for and without saying it, Soul already knew that it was a unique opportunity.

That disagreeable and painful sensation in his chest got worst. Everything that Maka was telling him was hard to assimilate and even harder to accept.

It wasn’t easy to accept that one of the most important people in his life couldn’t fight by his side anymore. She would go to the other side of the world, and the worst thing is that she had already found another weapon, someone who will replace him, someone she would turn into a Death Scythe instead of him.

“I don’t want you to leave,” said Soul. “Please, do not leave Maka.”

He noticed that his friend's eyes began to tear up before she hugged him. “I don’t want to leave either, but it’s the best for both of us.”

At that moment, as he felt something breaking inside him, he wished he had loved her.

Because, maybe, he might could have convinced her not to leave.

 

* * *

 

“We are going to miss you so much, Maka,” said Tsubaki, almost crying.

There was an expression of sadness on Maka's face. “I’m going to miss you guys so much too.”

“You have to tell us when you get there, okay?” asked Kid.

“And send a lot of pictures; we want to see how you do over there.” said Liz.

Patty approached her and gave Maka a little and adorable stuffed giraffe.

“It’s for you, that way you are not going to feel alone in the flight,” she said, smiling.

“Thanks Patty.” Maka smiled back and they hugged each other.

What they didn’t expect was that the next hug was a team brutality from Black Star and Kid, who captured Maka and  squeezed her to death.

“Get off me, you idiots! You are going to break me!”

“That’s because we love you, Maka.” said Black Star.

“And we are going to miss you a lot.” Kid seconded.

That was enough for her to start weeping and her friends freaked out.

“Stop it! You are going to make us cry too, stupid,” said Black Star.

“You guys can be so uncool sometimes.” Soul shrugged and that made Maka laugh. She cleaned her tears and approached her friend. He extended his arms smiling and hugged her without wanting to let her go. Their hug lasted longer than the others and that left a sad sensation on all of them.

“Promise me you are going to try hard in class and that you are going to defeat a lot of kishins,” she asked him.

“I’ll do what I can,” said Soul with a smirk. “Hope you can survive without me, you are too american to understand the scottish accent.”

“Oh, shut up,” she said, laughing and smacking him in the shoulder.

In that moment, the speakers announced Maka’s flight and they knew it was time to separate.

She had a knot in her throat “It’s time…”

They all nodded, and then they gave her a last hug and helped her with the luggage.

“I love you guys so much and you will always be my friends,” she said. “I don’t know when I’m coming back, but I will.”

“And we’re going to play basketball!” said Black Star.

“Yes, of course.” She grinned at him. “Bye guys.”

They saw her walk away and fade into the airport hallways.

Liz turned to Soul and said him, “You should’ve kissed her, Soul. She would’ve stayed that way.”

Soul smiled bitterly. That was something he thought before, but it was something impossible for him.

 

* * *

 

 The phone started to ring, distracting Soul from his incredible jazz cd that he bought not too long ago.

It was twelve thirty at night, who would call him at that hour?

It could only be one person… and that made him almost run to answer.

“Hello?”

“Soul!” Maka’s voice filled him with warmth and relief.

“Wow, you do sound excited to hear me. You can’t live without me, can you Albarn?”

“Don’t be stupid,” she laughed. “But I do miss you, it’s been hours since i last gave someone a Maka-chop and I have withdrawl.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, my mother was waiting for me at the airport and brought me to my new house,” she answered. “I’m tired, the flight was awful.”

“And how is Scotland?”

“From what I’ve seen while I was in the car, it’s beautiful. Pretty different too,” she told him. “There’s a lot of green everywhere and it’s very cold.”

“Wow, and here we are with more than seventy-seven degrees”

“Yeah, it’s weird,” Maka agreed. “But you know, I still kinda feel like I’m in home because I can see a graveyard by the window and next to it there is a playground.”

“Just like in Death City,” Soul laughed, amused.

“Typical of Death City.”

“So…any plans today? I’m guessing it’s morning over there…”

“Yes, I think I’m gonna rest a bit and then my mom told me we should go to Shibusen,” she said, referring to the new headquarters of DWMA. “To uh… meet my weapon...”

“Well… that’s awesome, I’m glad everything’s fine over there,” said Soul, faking happiness.

“Yeah, I guess,” she said, with doubt. ”But it’s weird, I don’t know this guy at all and now I have to live with him already and go to intensive train together. I would rather have some time to meet him beforehand.”

“Don’t worry Maka, if he’s a pervert or a psycho, just call me and I’ll go cut his throat personally.”

He heard her laugh.

“Thanks.”

“Thanks for what?”

“For still being my friend.”

He didn't hesitate for a second. “I could never leave you Maka.”

“Of course not, because it’s you who can’t live without me.” He could already imagine her grin. “I have to go, I’m tired and they are gonna drag me around the whole evening.”

“Okay, take care.”

“You too, Soul. I’ll call you when I can, bye.”

He stayed there for a while, with the phone still on his hand. He looked at the apartment and felt incredibly alone and empty.

Yes, he needed Maka.

 

* * *

 

After Maka’s call and some messages, they didn’t hear from her for at least two months.

Lord Death calmed them down after telling them that she was training with her new weapon in a place that kept them incommunicado, but he told them she was alright and there was nothing to be worried about.

But Soul just couldn’t stay calm

Even if he refused to accept it, he expected that Maka and her new weapon couldn’t resonate their souls so she would have come to Death City, but apparently he was wrong.

And he wasn’t doing well with finding a new meister. He wasn’t even putting a lot of effort into that. It was Stein who insisted that he get one and even introduced him to some, but none of them had been able to hold him.

They were all in the classroom during their break, sitting and talking in different places when they heard a shriek coming from Tsubaki.

“A message from Maka!” she yelled, looking at her phone.

She was instantly approached, mostly by the girls who were closer to her.

“What does it say, what does it say?” asked Patty, excited.

“It’s for everyone,” she said, smiling and starting to read. “ _Hi guys…_ ”

_“I hope you are all okay. I am so sorry for not calling or messaging you for awhile but the lack of signal in the mountains prevented me._

_The training was fine, it was pretty hard but we’ve advanced a lot. A lot happened lately, but I'll tell you the details later._

_I miss you guys a lot, this place is pretty boring without you, but at least I have my weapon Alex. He keeps me company, otherwise I would go insane._

_I send you a lot of hugs and Maka-chops (for the ones that deserves them, of course)_

_With love,_

_Maka_

_PD: Alex sends you greetings; I attached a picture so you can see that he’s taking good care of me.”_

“Picture?” asked Liz, alarmed.

“Let me see!” exclaimed Kim, taking Tsubaki’s phone. “God! Lucky bastard, why does Maka always get the hot guys?”

Soul raised a brow and she glared at him.

“Don’t get so arrogant Evans; a lot of girls say it.”

He sighed and got close to see the picture when Kim gave back the phone to Tsubaki. Maka appeared with her hair tied in a ponytail and a big smile while holding the camera with one of her hands. At her side was a guy with black hair and brown eyes saluting; he looked about eighteen years old (two more than Maka) and did not look even minimally uncomfortable or shy next to his new partner.

“He seems nice,” commented Tsubaki.

“Not as awesome as me, of course!” said Black Star.

Kid sighed with some relief. “They seem to get along; at least we can be calm knowing he’s not a creep that’s molesting her.”

“I don't like him,” stated Patty, to everyone’s surprise. “If it wasn’t for him Maka would still be here.”

“It’s not his fault Patty,” said Tsubaki, who looked at Soul. “Nor anyone else, ok?”

Soul nodded silently and turned around to go out of the classroom. He knew that Maka would be mad at him if she knew he was skipping classes, but he wasn’t in the mood to stay seated for two hours watching Stein dissecting a poor endangered animal or Marie blowing up a table with a hammer.

The truth was, he doubted that he even wanted to stay at the DWMA.

If Maka hadn’t asked him to be her partner he would’ve never stayed here. She was a fundamental piece in his new life, but she wasn’t there anymore and he felt a little lost without her.

After all, it’s the meister who guides the weapon.

“I’m pathetic,” he mumbled kicking a rock.

But no, he would stay. He promised her he would try. She trusted that he would become a Death Scythe and if he had to fight without a meister to collect souls, he would do it.

That way, when he saw her again, he could look at her in the eyes with pride.

Besides, he had this group of crazy friends. He would always have a home and a place to come back to.

He smiled. They were a present from Maka, too.

He just had to wait now. That way it would be him who would welcome Maka when she returned home.

He knew she would keep her promise too.


	2. The other scythe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second chapter is here, FINALLY!  
> I want to thank Kallie and Chloe for betaing it and helping me with my super messy translation  
> (you're a force of the nature, guys. I love you very much ♥)

“Watch out!”

Soul didn’t listen to Liz’s advice, but it wasn’t necessary anyway because his senses had become keener and before receiving the hit, he could to bend down and stretch his leg in one quick move, causing BS to lose his balance and receive a kick in his abdomen that threw him a few feet away from him in a rushing way.

“Uh, that was close…” Soul mumbled breathlessly.

“That was so cool!” exclaimed Patty.

Black Star jumped up and started to stamp the ground. “Soul, you asshole! Why did you hit me like that? You're supposed to be my best friend!”

“Did you think I wouldn’t realize that you were going to attack me with your soul wave? Then you really are a _great_ _friend_!” Soul accused him.

“Of course I am! I’m being generous in giving you the honor of training with a god like me; you should at least let me punch you as payment.”

“You know what you're saying doesn't make sense, right?”

The girls began to laugh as Soul sighed from exhaustion.

During the last months Soul had agreed reluctantly at Stein's insistence on getting a new meister, but the search had been unsuccessful. Even the most skilled ones couldn't synchronize their souls with his and, in the end, he'd run out of potential partners. Actually it wasn't bothering him, he saw it as a opportunity to improve his skills.

But the truth was that unlike the other weapons, he had never taken a training seriously. It was Maka who was in charge of the hand-to-hand combat, of jumping and hitting while he acted as her support.

Now he cursed his laziness. He would probably be much stronger if he had worked on this before.

That's why he had asked his friends to help him to learn new fighting techniques that would be useful in his solo soul-hunting. Of course, the fights with Black Star were the hardest and he had been beaten multiple times by him for months, but now he had finally managed to dodge him and respond to his attack, a feat that filled him with satisfaction.

“You're really excited this morning,” they heard from behind them and they all smiled widely at the newcomer.

“Kid!” exclaimed Patty and she ran up to hug him.

“It's good to see you, dude,” Black Star greeted Kid, giving him a high five.

Kid just smiled. “It's good to be home.”

After a while where everyone was talking to him animatedly, the young shinigami noticed that his friends watched him expectantly.

“You want to know how is Maka, right?” he asked and everyone nodded. “Then let's go in so we can sit and talk.”

They all followed Kid to the terrace and after they sat down he set out to answer the thousands of questions his friends had for him.

Kid had been out of Death City for a week since he had gone on a inspection visit to Shibusen, the new European headquarters of the DWMA and the place where their dear friend had moved about seven and a half months ago. They hadn't seen each other at all during that time, but they talked very often by phone and texted each other almost every day so their friendship hadn't diminished one bit despite the time elapsed and the distance that separated them.

When they found out that one of them could finally to see how she was doing in person, they got really excited and demanded a complete and detailed report.

“And...how is Shibusen?” asked Tsubaki to start.

“It’s an impressive place, very active and intense,” answered Kid and continued with his narration. “Due to the excessive appearance of kishins in Europe, they have missions every day as well as constantly studying and training. I was surprised for how motivated the students are, although most of them are newcomers who are just learning to fight. The only thing they want is to go out on missions, but there are very few who can and I think that's why they admire our friends even more.” Then, with a proud smile, he added, “My father definitely did an excellent job choosing who would represent us there.”

In the end, Maka was not the only one who was transferred to Shibusen. Many other outstanding students had done the same, like his friends, Kilik, Ox and Harvar. Professor Sid, his partner Nygus and Asuza had also gone to support the new teachers.

“That sounds like a paradise! Fighting and training all day... I don’t understand why I’m not there,” Black Star complained.

“You would not be useful to Shibusen,” Kid declared emphatically. “It’s true that they need strong meisters and weapons, but also they have to be patient and willing to help those who are just beginning. That’s essential to them and you are not exactly the most inclined to cooperate with others.”

“Ok, so Black Star is completely ruled out,” said Soul and his friend growled under his breath.

“Anyway, I’ve been told that their missions are not even half as hard as those that the DWMA give to us; it’s just they have far more missions than us and that's why their workload is heavier than ours. In fact, it was actually surprising that I could meet Maka because she has it the hardest out of everyone.”

“What do you mean?” asked Tsubaki, reflecting everyone's concern in her words.

“The duties of every DWMA student are to study and train but also to do missions. Not only the ones they choose or are asked to do, but they also accompany the new students to theirs and have to do fighting demonstrations every week and then they go back to study for their tests.” He paused. “Maka was the only one who had to start from scratch with a new weapon who had just discovered his powers and didn’t know how to fight, so she has had to do all those things and train twice with her partner and by herself as a meister. Her mother is teaching her new techniques and I have to say that what she is accomplishing is incredible. She is becoming very strong.”

They were surprised to hear that and their expressions made Kid laugh.

“Do you want to see?” he asked with a smile while was taking his laptop out of his bag. Everyone nodded again and surround him to watch the video that started playing on the screen. “It’s a video of one of the fight demonstrations that Maka and Kilik did when I was there.”

“No way! It’s really Maka?” asked Black Star.

“She has changed a lot,” Liz agreed.

Soul thought the same, but he wasn’t surprised. He and Maka had exchanged photos frequently during the last months so he had a record of the slight changes that her appearance had suffered. At first he was confused, wondering if she had always been that pretty, but then he realized that he had just not notice it they were always together.

But now it was clear how much she had grown and the fact she wasn’t a little girl anymore.

“Just on the outside,” said Kid, distracting him from his thoughts. “She’s still the same Maka we all know.”

“A short-tempered bookworm who hands out Maka Chops like it's her job?” asked Soul.

“Exactly,” confirmed Kid with a smile, making Soul chuckle. “She -ah, it’s going to start!”

It was in that moment when Soul noticed  that Maka’s weapon was right by her side. The guy didn’t seem very interested in the fight. He was more like that all his attention was focused on his meister and when she ordered him to transform, he did it immediately. His scythe form was different from Soul’s, smaller, with a pretty ornate black handle and a straight blade in blue and black colors. All that gave him a very gothic look, but then Soul noticed something more.

“His blade… is sharpless?”

“Yes, it’s his only weak point,” said Kid with a sigh. “But when Maka and he became partners he wasn’t able to transform at will, not even only his arm like you used to do so I think that is amazing how much he has improved in such little time. It is something that very few have managed to do in the Shibusen.”

Soul looked at him without understanding him and that made Kid sigh again. He knew that Alex's achievements were not going to impress him because when he was eleven and discovered that he was a scythe, his blade was already sharp and he learned to transform quickly so he got to join the EAT class along with Maka, Black Star, and Tsubaki.

As expected, Maka wielded Alex skilfully and dodged Kilik's attacks with astonishing speed, almost as if she was making fun of him, although her opponent was not far behind and he managed to throw her with one punch towards the end of the field. But when he was going to finish her off, Maka made an unexpected movement with the palm of her hand, hitting Kilik directly in his chest.

What happened next was something strange, because they saw how a small light with the form of wings formed over Maka’s hand in a second and a discharge threw Kilik away, defeating him.

“What a hell was that!?” exclaimed Black Star with his mouth open.

“Anti-Demon Wavelength,” said Kid.

“What? How can she use it like that?” asked Soul, as surprised as Black Star. “It’s supposed to be a passive ability, right? Like a barrier against the madness, not to fight hand-to-hand.”

“Not exactly… as far as I know it gives a kind of purifying power to their user,” Kid started to explain again. “That was a new technique she has been developing with her mother. Kami told me that everyone has a little of madness inside and what that attack does is destroy any particle of madness that her opponent may have in a single blow, causing them to collapse.”

“That sounds brutal, I like it,” approved Black Star with a smile.

“What would happen if she used it with Stein? Would he explode?” joked Liz.

“Not a thousand hits could affect his madness,” replied Kid, laughing.   

Soul returned to fix his eyes to the video, looking with affection at the image of his friend. She was becoming very strong and he could not feel more proud of her. But all those feelings vanished suddenly and he could not avoid staying frozen to see what happened next in the recording.

After she was announced as the winner of the match, that boy, Alex, returned to his human form and then had taken her by the waist to make her turn in the air with joy and embrace her at the end. He saw how Maka blushed, embarrassed by her partner's action and when he left her on the ground, she quickly pulled him away from her but in spite of that, he kept smiling.

“Sorry, but… What has just happened?” asked Liz, as impressed as Soul.

“Well… you said that Alex is a bit enthusiastic about physical contact.  He is always trying to hug Maka so he receives an indiscriminate amount of Maka-chops, although he doesn’t give up and rarely separates from her side. You can see how much he adores her and it is not surprising.”

“And why is that?” asked Black Star and everyone except Soul stared at him, like if they were thinking he was even more stupid.

“Don’t you remember when Maka told us his backstory?” said Tsubaki and Blake shook his head “That boy didn’t want to be a weapon and he was extremely aggressive temperamental. That gave her a lot of problems at the beginning.”

“Well, we have to consider that his life was as hard as Liz and Patty’s. I suppose that Maka has been the only one who made him feel he belongs somewhere and stayed there only because of her,” said Kid.

“I'm going home.”

To everyone's surprise, Soul jumped up and walked away without even looking at them. He knew that by doing that he would worry them, but at that moment he did not care and all he needed was to be alone.

There was a chaos in his head. He was happy because Maka was doing well and had made such progress, but at the same time he was terrified. He felt like this might take her away from him. After all, if she got that strong, would she even need him anymore? What reason would she have to come back to the DWMA? For him? For a scythe she couldn't even resonate with?

He shook his head and ruffled his hair in despair. No, Maka would never do that to him. She’d said she loved him and that should be more than enough of a reason for her to return, but he had rejected her… and he sensed that this boy, Alex, was going to complicate things even more because he could understand what he was feeling. Maka had also marked a place on the map for him, a place where he felt welcomed and accepted for the first time. Nobody would let something so valuable get out of hand.

 **_“But you did it,”_** a voice said in the back of his mind.

Soul held back a groan. “Don’t provoke me, you little bastard. I'm not in the mood today for your stupid mental games.”

**_“Oh, dear Soul, I was just anticipating your thoughts. I know you think he might he can snatch your dear Maka. Am I wrong?”_ **

“She is not mine.”

**_“Which makes you look worse, kid. You're possessive and selfish. You want her to come back and be here for you but you don’t want to offer her anything in return, only your friendship, which is something she already has.”_ **

“Yeah, I know I’m the worst, you don’t need to remind me.”

**_“But that boy is not like you and that tortures you,” taunted the demon. “He treats her in a way that you would never have thought of and you saw that he was closer to her than you have ever been. He could make his feelings change and unlike you he could convince her to stay with him.”_ **

“Are you sure you want me to unbalance? I could throw myself from a building and you would go with me to the grave.”

“ **_I just wanted you to open your eyes. It's fucking boring and exasperating to have to stand the adolescent ravings of a boy as cynical as you are. Don’t you think that instead of complaining so pathetically you should do something?_ ** ”

"Something like what...?" Soul asked, frowning, somewhat confused by the demon’s strange behavior.

**_“You could stop being a slacker and start investigating why you can’t resonate. Who knows? Maybe you'll find the solution.”_ **

He opened his eyes, completely surprised. How come he had not thought about that?

“I can’t believe you're trying to help me,” muttered Soul. “The world must be ending.”

**_“Don’t get used to it.”_ **

“Got it.”

Then he felt that the little demon had gone, leaving him alone with a feverish motivation that made him run to his apartment quickly.

When he entered, he went directly to Maka's bookshelf. She hadn’t been able to take all her books to Europe and had left him well stocked with texts about souls in which he was never interested in. He knew that she hadn’t managed to return some of them to the library, because she she lamented about not being able to finish reading them and asked him to return them for her, something he had completely forgotten.

He was sure that there should be a level four book lying around here somewhere since Maka had used her father's identification more frequently during the last weeks she spent in Death City, and he was not wrong.

He was going to begin reading when his phone started ringing and he answered without paying much attention.

“Yeah?”

“Hi Soul, it’s Kid.”

“Ah, hi… what’s up?”

“I was calling you because I wanted to know if you were okay. We were worried that you left like that before.”

“Ah, right. I'm sorry. I didn’t feel very well.”

“I can imagine. I suppose that seeing Maka with her new weapon wouldn’t have been very pleasant.”

"Do you mean when he laid his hands on her?" The anger with which he uttered that phrase showed some jealousy that surprised Kid but Soul didn’t notice. “Fuck, of course not! Maka can go out with whoever she wants!”

“I think you're misinterpreting the situation… it's true that Maka loves Alex a lot, but she would never see him that way, not even as a permanent partner. Did you not notice it in the video?”

"Oh no! I did not notice anything!" Soul said sarcastically.

"I’m talking about the fight, you idiot," Kid scolded him. "Didn't you notice that Maka used Alex almost exclusively for defensive maneuvers?”

"And that is important because...?" Soul asked, not understanding.

"That means she was fighting alone, like you've done all these months," said Kid. "She certainly never handled you that way when you fought together, right?"

"No, we would have leaped to attack," said Soul.

“Of course, you worked together as a team,” said Kid. “And I know she still considers you as her weapon for how hard she is working.”

The words of his friend struck a chord in Soul, then he understood. For him, Maka also remained as his meister in spite of everything. His training and that he had not chosen a partner were enough evidence to notice it.

“So do not worry. She will return as soon as she is done with the issues that tie her to Europe.”

“Ok…”

"Now I demand that you come to my house this afternoon.”

“Why?”

"Oh, you'll see," said Kid, in a cheerful voice.

“All right, see you later.”

He hung up and fixed his eyes on the books. He had a lot of work ahead, but he was not going to give up.

 

* * *

 

Soul arrived at Kid's house at the agreed time without knowing what was waiting for him, something that intrigued him a bit.

He was surprised to see that all his friends were there too.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

“Kid called us and insisted that we had to come,” answered Black Star.

“Did he not say anything else?”

"No, and I don’t understand it. He always beats around the bush to explain anything.”

“I wonder why he gathered us here,” said Tsubaki.

“If you turned around, you would find out.”

A silence was placed abruptly in the room since their stupefaction was too big to contain.

That voice ... it couldn’t be!

They turned around and all of them exclaimed with joy at the same time when they saw the image reflected on the computer that Kid had placed on the table behind them.

“Maka!”

There she was, smiling at them from the screen.

Soul felt his heart start beating fast like crazy and was the first to get up and reach the computer.

“Oh, Soul,” said Maka when he arrived before the others. Her voice was different; warmer. ”It’s been so long. How are you?”

Maka smiled at him from the other side of the world. He noticed that her hair was loose and longer; he also recognized the shirt she was wearing. It was one that she had stolen from him a few years ago and she used to wear to sleep.

It was silly, but that little detail had made him happy.

"Way better now that I can see you," he said grinning, making her blush slightly as she let out a small laugh.

"Hey, pay attention to us too, Maka," Liz said, amused.

"Sure, hi guys," she said, taking her eyes off Soul's eyes for a moment.

“Maka and I agreed to have a video call. It was a bit complicated because of the time difference but we got it,” said Kid.

"What time is it there?" Tsubaki asked.

"One in the morning," Maka answered, "but don’t worry, it's definitely worth staying up late to talk to you.”

"Yo, Maka!" Black Star exclaimed, caught her attention. "We saw the video of your fight with Kilik. You were amazing, so forget the basketball and let's brawl for real when you get back!”

"Oh, but I was so excited about basketball..." she said with feigned disappointment

Everyone laughed at the small talk between the two meisters, then they started talking and sharing anecdotes.

“Then the bird that Stein was going to dissect knocked off his glasses with his legs and stung his eye,“ snickered Soul. “It was the first time that an animal gave that psycho what he deserved.”

Maka had tears of laughter. “Oh, God, I can’t believe I missed it.”

“And there's more! After that, he…”

But then an unknown voice interrupted him.

“Maka, you're making a lot of noise. What are you doing up so late?”

"Ah," Maka said as she turned around. "Excuse me, did I wake you up?

“Yeah, you did... what are you doing?”

“I'm talking to my friends from the DWMA.”

“Really!?”

Suddenly Alex, Maka's weapon, appeared on the screen and to Soul's surprise, he put his arm around Maka's shoulders in a movement that seemed totally natural and spontaneous.

“Hey everyone, I'm Alex!” he introduced himself, smiling.

Everyone greeted him excitedly, except Soul, who was not very happy to see him, but he hid as much as he could that unpleasant feeling in his stomach.

"Alex, let go of me and go to your room," Maka scolded.

“Huh? Why?” he complained looking her in the eye. “It’s not fair. You’re always talking about them and I wanted to meet them!”

“Well, you saw them, now go away!” she growled, trying to escape from his embrace.

"Not so fast, Albarn. I still have questions about how you are at school," Liz said. "I'm sure Kid hid the juiciest parts.”

“Liz, I don’t think it's a good idea …”

“Oh! I’m sure you know she's great, everyone admires her and envies me for being her weapon!” Alex ignored his meister and started to talk, very excited. “She is in an advanced class along with all the DWMA guys so I don’t know how she is there, but always she always get A’s and is in first place for all exams.”

“Well, that was to be expected,” said Tsubaki.

"And also ..." began Alex, confabulating with Liz. “She has a lot of admirers. Every day I have to hit some perv who wants to approach her with dirty intentions”.

“What? To Maka?" Black Star asked, dying of laughter. "Really? Who would want to harass a flat-chested bookworm like her?”

“And that is important?”

What Alex said left Black Star a bit disconcerted and he didn’t know what to say. They were the only ones who didn’t notice that Maka was really pissed off and wanted to punch their faces.

“Shut up, Alex! First of all, you’re the one who always looks for excuses to fight every time!” Maka released her anger. “And second, you are the one who is always bothering me, ok? Now let me go, you’re suffocating me!”

“Oh, are you going to start with that again?” said Alex, Soul didn’t like the way he was looking at her… at all. "Will I have to kiss you again so you can learn the lesson?"

“WHAT!?” everyone yelled, even Tsubaki.

Soul noticed that Maka had blushed a little, but her expression remained serious.

“Guys, do you really think that if he had kissed me, he would have lived to tell about it?" she said quietly, as if it were obvious. Then she made an unexpected movement, nudging Alex in the stomach and he finally released her, moaning in pain. “And you idiot, HOW MANY TIMES do I have to tell you NOT to say stupid things that confuse others?”

“She’s speaking the truth,” said Blake and Patty at the same time.

“So cold...as always…” Alex managed to say. “It’s not fair, I just wanted Soul to get jealous.” Then he crossed his arms and Soul could not help frowning. “You are always talking about him! ‘ _Soul this_ , _Soul that…’_ You should look at me, you know?”

She was really blushing now and Soul didn’t know what to think about that.

“Of course I look at you… because you always stand in my way! Now go before I kill you with a Maka-chop!”

“Yeah, ok…” he accepted, resigned. “Well guys, it was a pleasure to meet you.”

After everyone said their goodbyes to him, they all returned their attention to Maka, who seemed exhausted.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “I don’t know what happened to him. Alex is always too hyperactive and noisy but he usually doesn’t behave that way.”

“Well, I thought he was very nice,” Liz said cheerfully.

"Of course you did," Maka sighed, annoyed.

“Well, I think it's better if you went to sleep, Maka,” said Soul, surprising her. “You'll have many missions later, right? I don’t want to hear that you collapsed in one of them because you stayed up late to talk to us.”

His concern made her smile kindly.

“I’ll be okay, though I have to accept that I feel a little sleepy.”

“Then, go to bed!” he ordered her while their friends watched them, amused.

"All right, all right," said Maka. "It made me very happy to see you guys.”

“We have to do this again sometime,” said Patty.

"And soon," Maka agreed with her. "I'm leaving now, see you later."

“Goodbye, Maka.”

“Take care!”

And then the communication was cut off.

 

* * *

 

Maka leaned her elbows on the table and covered her face with her hands.

“So that was Soul.”

She turned and saw Alex, watching her from the hallway entrance with a serious expression.

"What the hell were you trying to do?" she asked him, angry.

“Well, he did not seem very happy to see me so I had to find out …”

“What?”

“Maka, are you sure he’s not in love with you?”

“Yes, I’ve already told you that he rejected me before I left Death City.”

“I don’t think so. He was looking daggers at me and I'm sure he likes you more than he thinks.”

“That's impossible. He's had years to discover if he had feelings for me and it never happened.”

“And you’re supposed to be the smart one here… just trust me, now he is going to rethink the idea,” he said, smiling. “I did you a favor, you will thank me later.”

Maka didn’t understand anything what Alex was saying and when he went back to his room, she stayed there, staring at the computer screen in confusion.

And what was she going to do now?

 

* * *

 

She didn’t know, but Alex's words turned out to be prophetic. During the following weeks, Soul was cursing himself for behaving so strangely.

Maka made him behave strangely and he despaired for that.

His friends were trying to not mention “ _that sad excuse for a weapon_ ” (how Soul called Alex) because he got really moody and broke whatever he had in his hands. They started to understand what was happening, but even Liz didn’t dare to bother him or ask him about it. They just helped him with his training and his new research.

That was how he had kept busy during that time.

That day he was going up the stairs of the DWMA, a little sleepy. Today he had to fight with Black Star again and he was already preparing himself for the back pain that awaited him.

Halfway there, he realized that a big commotion was forming in the school and he hurried to see what was happening. Upon arriving, he was surprised to see the amount of people running in a chaotic manner, one side to the other, many of whom were in the form of a weapon in the hands of their meisters. Orders were shouted everywhere and alarms sounded on the loudspeakers of the school.

Emergency alarms.

“Soul!”

He saw Kid running desperately towards him and fear quickly invaded him.

“Kid! What is happening?”

"A horde of kishins is attacking Shibusen!" he replied. "They are resisting but they need reinforcements. We must go right now!”

Soul paled suddenly and felt his soul shrink in a sudden and devastating pain.

“Maka ...“ he managed to say “Is Maka ok!?”

“I-I don’t know” Kid answered, terrified. “We lost communication a few minutes ago. I don’t know if she's still…”

"KID!" Soul shouted, enraged.

"I know!" he said. "We have to hurry, there are ships that will take us there, come on.”

Soul didn’t even bother to wait for Kid. He just ran out in the direction he pointed.

"Wait for me Maka, I'm on my way!"


End file.
